In recent years, there has prevailed a business model wherein an automatic development processor that performs processing of photographic light-sensitive materials, called a mini-lab, is set up at a shop front for a quick service for general users in place of collection and delivery between a photograph shop and a processing laboratory. Mini-labs are required to perform quick processing so that a customer having brought a photographed light-sensitive material can receive a finished print on the spot without visiting the shop again. Particularly, in recent years, since photographing media which are the objects required to be printed into color prints have included electronic image recording media photographed in a digital camera as well as silver salt photographic films, it becomes more necessary than ever to provide a service that gives a “convenient and quick” feel so as to render new customers to become familiar with the shop.
In order to give the “convenient and quick” feel, color copying methods such as an ink jet method, a thermally dye-transferring method and a color electrostatic photographic method are suitable but, since they fail to give pictorial image quality, customers who satisfy the images are limited, and excellent image quality that color prints have has been desired.
As print-producing means to be employed in mini-labs that can provide both image quality and convenience/quickness, there has been proposed a thermally developing color diffusion transfer method (trade name: Picto Color), and image-forming materials for the method and print-producing techniques are explained in, for example, non-patent document 1. However, this method involves a disadvantage in the point that an unnecessary product called a donor film produced in the course of producing color prints must be discarded.
On the other hand, there has been made an invention of using color paper excellent in image quality and processing it in a simple and rapid manner. For example, patent document 1 discloses a processing period-shortening processing which uses a light-sensitive material containing a specific magenta coupler, and in which the light-sensitive material is treated in a color developer containing a nitrogen-containing hetero ring compound, subjected to bleach-fixing treatment, and subjected to rinsing treatment, with an example being illustrated wherein the time for the silver-removing step is 15 seconds, and the time for total dipping steps is 53 seconds. However, objects of this processing are limited to light-sensitive materials containing a specific coupler, and hence the processing is limited as to its application scope and, in addition, the processing involves a problem that, when formulation of a bleach-fixing solution varies in a direction that its silver-removing activity is deteriorated in a rapid processing, there arises insufficient silver removal. Also, with acceleration of processing, the processing has defects essential to a bleach-fixing solution that the minimum yellow density is increased, that stain with time of a treated light-sensitive material is increased due to insufficient removal of a residual developing agent by washing and that precipitation occurs in a running solution for bleaching and in the concentrated solution.
Also, it is described in patent document 2 that a bleach-fixing composition comprising a low-pH bleaching agent part containing iron (III) aminopolycarboxylate complex salt and a non-chelation type aminopolycarboxylic acid and a high-pH fixing composition part can suppress generation of a precipitate with time (Fe(II) complex salt) and can reduce the amount of a replenisher and/or accelerate the bleach-fixing processing, and it is shown therein as an Example that a markedly shortened processing of 16 seconds in a silver-removing step and 48 seconds in the total dipping steps is possible by employing a method of adding individual parts directly to a bleach-fixing tank. Also, formulation for the bleaching agent part described in the Example contains a sulfinic acid compound.
However, as is the same with patent document 1, there has been involved a problem that, in rapid processing, there results insufficient removal of silver when formulation of the bleach-fixing solution varies in the direction that silver-removing activity is reduced. Also, with acceleration of the processing, it has the essential defects to a bleach-fixing solution that the minimum yellow density is increased, that stain with time of a treated light-sensitive material is increased due to insufficient removal of a residual developing agent by washing and that precipitation occurs in a running solution for bleaching.
Additionally, patent document 3 is given for reference though not a conventional art, since it involves the step and the additives included in the constituents of the invention. Patent document 3 discloses that, in a processing of successively conducting color development, bleaching and fixing, color stain of a light-sensitive material can be prevented by incorporating a sulfinic acid compound in the bleaching solution. It relates to the technique of the invention to be described hereinafter in the point of the above-described processing steps and the use of sulfinic acid compound. However, the processing disclosed therein is a processing which is mainly applied to light-sensitive materials for photographing use and takes a period of from several minutes to ten and several minutes, and color stain with the processing is different from stain that accompanies shortening of processing time, thus the processing being different from the invention in the object of the invention, constitution and subject to be solved.
Further, there are no descriptions therein that permit analogical reasoning to the advantage of the invention to remove the defects essential to a bleach-fixing solution accompanying acceleration of the bleach-fixing solution in rapid processing that the minimum yellow density is increased, that stain with time of a treated light-sensitive material is increased due to insufficient removal of a residual developing agent by washing and that precipitation occurs in a running solution for bleaching and in the concentrated solution.
As the aforesaid conventional art relating to the invention of this application, there are the following literatures.
Patent document 1: JP-A-7-234488
Patent document 2: JP-A-2004-53921
Patent document 3: JP-A-9-166854
Non-patent document 1: Kosugi, Netsugenzo Kakusan Tenshagata Kara Purinta (Thermally developable diffusion transfer color printer); Nippon Shasin Gakkaishi, Vol. 64(5), pp. 292-296 (2002)